Report: Lakers shifting focus to 2019 free agent class

Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, and Kawhi Leonard are a few of the names the Lakers will pursuit.

“Next year will be our year.” That is what us Laker fans have been hearing for the past 5 years. It wasn’t that short ago when we heard about Paul George and LeBron James potentially teaming up in Los Angeles to play for the Lakers.

Today, Adrian Wojnarowski from ESPN announced the Lakers’ intentions on what to do with their sacred cap space:

The Lakers are intrigued by the free agency class of 2019, because it has players that have not hit their prime yet and are playing at a very high level. Klay Thompson, Kawhi Leonard, and Jimmy Butler are the big names heading this class.

We will just have to wait and see what happens. Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson need to make tough decisions, and the fact that all three guys are pretty comfortable at their current teams and are likely to stay right now, makes this a very rational decision.

In the report, Wojnarowski says that even though the focus has shifted to the class of 2019, the Lakers will still try their best to land the likes of LeBron James and Paul George.

Patience is something that we will need to get accustomed to. A year ago we were waiting for the class of 2018 and now that we were just months away from it, the focus has shifted to 2019.

At the end of the day, it is not the end of the world, we are currently in a league dominated by one team and it does not look like it is going to change any time soon. It is the perfect time to rebuild and maybe holding on to this young team is the best decision Magic and Rob can make. This stretch of games in which this young team has won 10 out of their last 14 games shows what they are capable of and why rebuilding might be the way to go.

Let’s hope that this decision is for the good of the team and it ends up taking the Lakers back to where they belong.